Man Rescuing Racoons Due Favor, Not Fine

Jim Spencer

July 21, 1996|By JIM SPENCER Daily Press

While baby raccoons Bubba and Sissy frolicked in their cage at Hampton's Bluebird Gap Farm Friday, Butch Lesser sat on his porch across town wondering how he could be charged with a crime for saving their lives.

His confusion is understandable. Lesser didn't have Bubba and Sissy long enough to name them. A staff member at Blue Bird Gap did that. Within four days of finding the baby raccoons hungry and holed up under a little bridge that crosses a drainage ditch in his back yard, Lesser arranged to give them to the city-run farm. Nevertheless, he goes to court Wednesday for possession of wildlife without a permit, a Class 3 misdemeanor carrying a maximum fine of $500.

Officer A.S. Wolf of Virginia's Department of Game and Inland Fisheries cited Lesser on June 10, the very day he was to deliver the animals to Blue Bird Gap.

"We received a call from the SPCA saying he refused to turn over the animals," explained Lt. Ken Conger, Wolf's supervisor. "The SPCA said he wanted to keep them as pets."

Not exactly, said Peninsula SPCA director Gene Falls.

"We had a call from an emergency veterinary clinic saying he had baby raccoons," Falls said. "We went out there, and he wouldn't give them to us. So I called the game department and told them. But Mr. Lesser had told us about giving the raccoons to Blue Bird Gap. I don't see why the game department wrote him a ticket."

Neither does Lesser or his wife, Tina.

"I was very surprised to get the ticket," Lesser said. "I wasn't trying to make money or anything. If I hadn't done what I did, these things would have died in my back yard."

"They were starving to death," explained Tina Lesser. "Their mom had abandoned them or been killed. When we called the SPCA about them, we were told they might put them to sleep. We didn't want the SPCA to kill them."

So the Lessers called the emergency veterinary number that the SPCA gave them and found out how to care for the babies in the back yard. The Lessers said they were told the little raccoons might drown if a heavy rain flooded the drainage ditch. Butch nailed together some boards for a small hut, put some hay inside and moved the babies in. Morning and evening, he or his wife fed the raccoons a concoction of baby formula and cat food recommended by the veterinary clinic. A few days later a lady from the clinic showed up. The Lessers let her take the sickest of the babies, but kept one male and one female.

"We thought it was important that they grow up in their native habitat," Lesser said.

With that in mind, he called Jim Seward, the director at Blue Bird Gap, on June 6, four days after finding the babies.

"I wanted to help him out because I know it's illegal to keep wildlife in your yard," Seward said. "I told him I'd take the raccoons within a week. I needed time to fix a cage for them."

Lesser said he tried to explain that to both the SPCA and the game warden. He also tried to tell them that he never intended to keep the little raccoons. All the Lessers were interested in was saving lives. And there's no doubt in Seward's mind that Bubba and Sissy are around today because of the Lessers.

"The raccoons were too young to be on their own," he said. "When we got them, they weighed about half a pound apiece. One of my assistants took them home and hand-fed them for a couple of weeks."

These days, Bubba and Sissy check in at around five pounds apiece and dine on Puppy Chow. Soon, the Blue Bird Gap staff plans to introduce them to wild foods, such as berries, crabs and other shellfish.

Meanwhile, their savior struggles to find someone to represent him in court.

"I'm just a working man," Lesser said. "I don't have money to hire a lawyer. A $500 fine would kill me. I called PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), but they were no help. I called the Animal Legal Defense Fund in Richmond. Their lawyers said they weren't available for my trial, but that they'd carry me through an appeal if I'm convicted."

I'm confident that won't be necessary. Any judge who examines these facts should figure out real fast that convicting Lesser is more than a miscarriage of justice. It's crime against nature.